Between April 16 and June 1, developers can enter by joining App Builder Rewards and completing the "Every Dev Has a Story" quest with 50-200 words about an application published in the Windows or Windows Phone Store, or an Azure application or developer story that includes:

What did you build and why?

What inspired your technical and problem-solving genius?

Which Microsoft tools and features did you use?

Developers can submit up to five unique stories that will be judged on: technical genius and innovation (50%), promotional tactics (20%), monetization (15%) and human interest (15%).

Many of the participants used GameMaker by YoYo Games to create an app. A testimony to GameMaker Studio is that most who were using it were doing so for the first time – and of that group, some had no development background whatsoever! This was highlighted in the news coverage by KRNV Channel 4 as seen here:

Although the participants took the Hackathon seriously, the event was full of energy, prizes, and great networking. There was a variety among the attendees – students, entrepreneurs, moonlighters, and newbies. For a glimpse of what the journey was like, check out the news coverage by KTVN Channel 2:

The Microsoft licensing team in Reno demonstrated their logistical prowess which resulted in everything running smoothly. Special thanks to Bruno Terkaly and tech-celebrity Sarah Austin (with PlexiNLP) for contributing their technical mentorship to all!